Update 2
Wow,
It rains a LOT in the afternoons here! I hear that June and July are the
rainiest months in this area.
Last night our whole group transfered over to La Universidad de la Tierra
where we're going to stay for the next week. I'll have Spanish class from
9 to 11:30 in the morning and our academic class from 12:00-2:30. I was
(amazingly enough) placed in the second highest Spanish class! Breakfast
is served at 8am, lunch at 2pm and dinner at 7pm. So far the staple of the
meals has been beans, tortillas and pasta. At lunch we got some chicken
soup with squash, too. This morning we got some amazing lemongrass tea
with honey and for lunch the drink was rice milk. The food is prepared by
the students of UniTierra and most of the food is grown on the campus,
too. The tortillas are AMAZING. There's something to be said about food
prepared from scratch.
Our dormitory is essentially a cabin filled with bunk beds. We have an
outhouse and cold showers. The campus grounds are beautiful- They're
located up in the foothills- It's SO GREEN and gorgeous. The rooms are
all brightly painted and cheerful. The students are mainly indigenous
youth from surrounding Zapatista communities who come in to learn skills
like sewing and mechanics so they can get better paying jobs. Most of
them speak Spanish as a second language and are just as shy as I am to
strike up conversation :)
On Sunday afternoon we leave for Oventic which is an autonomous Zapatista
community. It's about an hour away from San Cristobal. We'll be
continuing our classes up there along with various activities such as
learning how to weave, learning how to make boots, learning how to roast
coffee...Lots of cool cultural things. We'll also be paired up with a high
school student from the village to work on a project with! Another fun
aspect of this program is that the students in the study abroad program
are responsible for reasearching news to report back to the high school
students of Oventic once a week. And we have to do it in Spanish!
All in all, I'm incredibly happy. The people I've met are cool and the
environment is beautiful. And one thing's for sure- I'll be a lot less
likely to complain about the quality of bathrooms, showers, shelter or
food!
No pictures in this update- I didn't bring my computer into town so I'm
using someone elses. I'll have pictures in the next update, though-
Probably on Wednesday, at the latest on Sunday.
I miss you all and hope everything's going well state side!
It rains a LOT in the afternoons here! I hear that June and July are the
rainiest months in this area.
Last night our whole group transfered over to La Universidad de la Tierra
where we're going to stay for the next week. I'll have Spanish class from
9 to 11:30 in the morning and our academic class from 12:00-2:30. I was
(amazingly enough) placed in the second highest Spanish class! Breakfast
is served at 8am, lunch at 2pm and dinner at 7pm. So far the staple of the
meals has been beans, tortillas and pasta. At lunch we got some chicken
soup with squash, too. This morning we got some amazing lemongrass tea
with honey and for lunch the drink was rice milk. The food is prepared by
the students of UniTierra and most of the food is grown on the campus,
too. The tortillas are AMAZING. There's something to be said about food
prepared from scratch.
Our dormitory is essentially a cabin filled with bunk beds. We have an
outhouse and cold showers. The campus grounds are beautiful- They're
located up in the foothills- It's SO GREEN and gorgeous. The rooms are
all brightly painted and cheerful. The students are mainly indigenous
youth from surrounding Zapatista communities who come in to learn skills
like sewing and mechanics so they can get better paying jobs. Most of
them speak Spanish as a second language and are just as shy as I am to
strike up conversation :)
On Sunday afternoon we leave for Oventic which is an autonomous Zapatista
community. It's about an hour away from San Cristobal. We'll be
continuing our classes up there along with various activities such as
learning how to weave, learning how to make boots, learning how to roast
coffee...Lots of cool cultural things. We'll also be paired up with a high
school student from the village to work on a project with! Another fun
aspect of this program is that the students in the study abroad program
are responsible for reasearching news to report back to the high school
students of Oventic once a week. And we have to do it in Spanish!
All in all, I'm incredibly happy. The people I've met are cool and the
environment is beautiful. And one thing's for sure- I'll be a lot less
likely to complain about the quality of bathrooms, showers, shelter or
food!
No pictures in this update- I didn't bring my computer into town so I'm
using someone elses. I'll have pictures in the next update, though-
Probably on Wednesday, at the latest on Sunday.
I miss you all and hope everything's going well state side!